Salivary Exosome (nsEV) Analysis to Elucidate Intercelluar Signaling Events that Precede Pilot Fatigue &Impaired Cognition
Abstract
This consortium research effort will yield two key deliverables that prevent compromise by cognitive fatigue of pilot safety and mission success. The first is a catalog of molecular predictors of cognitive fatigue present in saliva. This catalog will facilitate construction of smartphone-type devices that allow small saliva draws to be analyzed for inflight assessment of cognitive function. The second is a biochemical map describing how communications among body tissues change as fatigue sets in. Understanding these changes will enable development of training programsthat enhance pilot cognitive endurance.The PI s team’s unique experience and technology capabilities will enable these deliverables to be realized via analysis of exosomes, nanometer-sized vesicles produced by all body cells, in saliva. Whereas saliva is a complex mixture from which low abundance, yet highly important, cell-to-cell communication molecules are difficult to isolate, exosomes are distinct carriers of such molecules; enriching salivary exosomes allows one to accurately measure how levels of these molecules change as cognitive function declines. Making an expansive and integrated set of such measurements will allow project key deliverables to be realized and enable development of both smartphone-type cockpit devices for forewarning cognitive fatigue and training programs that improve pilot endurance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 11, 2017
- Source ID
- FA95501710399
Entities
People
- Varghese John
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California, Los Angeles